Reliance Infrastructure, led by Anil Ambani, is in talks with Apollo Global, Brookfield and Canadian institutional investor CDPQ (Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec) to sell Pune-Satara toll road.

The enterprise value of the asset is estimated at Rs 1,500–Rs 1,800 crore, sources said.

The company is now in negotiation to sign a definitive agreement and close the deal in 30–45 days, he said.

The toll road is a six-lane road, between Pune and Satara in Maharashtra on National Highway (NH4), stretching about 140 km. The project is part of the Golden Quadrilateral, which connects Mumbai and Bengaluru. The tolling on the project had started in October 2010.

Debt reduction spree

Reliance Infra is on a debt reduction drive with target to become debt free by next March-end.

The company’s consolidated debt was Rs 14,260 crore and standalone debt was Rs 3,808 crore as of March, 2021.

Recently, it raised Rs 550 crore from the promoter group and VSFI Holding Pte – an affiliate of Varde Investment Partners, LLP.

The company shareholders recently approved the fund raising plans through postal ballot.

The company is also in advanced talks with Cube Highways which has shown interest in four of its road assets -- DS Toll Road Pvt Ltd, NK Toll Road, SU Toll Road in Tamil Nadu and JR Toll Road in the state of Rajasthan.

The sale of these assets is expected be bring down debt by Rs 1,430 crore. With a total length of 283 kms, all four road assets are under operation with remaining concession period of 12 years.

This is the second transaction between Reliance Infra and Cube Highways. In January, Reliance Infra sold its Delhi-Agra Toll Road to Cube Highways and Infrastructure III Pte Ltd for an enterprise value over Rs 3,600 crore after announcing the deal in March 2019.

Reliance Infra has an EPC order book of over Rs 25,000 crore. It has executed projects worth over Rs 2 Lakh crore in the past 20 years.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW